


Cover Story

by shelovestoship



Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Dark Past, Drama & Romance, F/M, the tequila made me do it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2019-11-08 17:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 8,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17985182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelovestoship/pseuds/shelovestoship
Summary: Higgins and Magnum deal with the possibilities and impossibilities of their relationship after a night of tequila while helping an old asset of Juliet’s track down his long lost son.





	1. Cover Story

**Cover Story**

Quite a few people want to become spies but most don’t even get into whatever program their country has. Even fewer are actually are good at it. Good enough to stay in the game with body and mind intact while simultaneously broken enough to want to stay.

Juliet Higgins had been one of good ones; the broken ones.

On the outside, her upper middle-class background and seemingly happy family should have prepared her life as a housewife, manager (of an appropriately nished company) or possibly (since she was pretty and bright -those were the words teachers had used on many occasion) she might become a solicitor or do computer work with a big firm.

She’d always been good at computers, ever since she first saw one in her neighbor’s den when she was just seven. Her father had been very upset by that. She’d never understood why. Then again, most things he’d done, she hadn’t understood.

In the end, her skill with computers had saved her. Given her life purpose. Made her frightfully competent, not just at computers but at many things. And thanks to that, she’d had a chance to change her life, make a difference in the world. Almost recreated that perfect happy family.

Only it would have been real, unlike her childhood. Because her life back then had been far from idyllic. Compared to the childhoods she’d come to understand other people had, it would probably have been called...difficult. But looking back she was glad for that. In training, she could take as any punch they threw at her, could handle being threatened, yelled at, locked up in the dark for hours and even the electric shock mock-torture sessions that had been part of training hadn’t been as painful as she’d imagined.

It also helped her with her covers and fieldwork once she became an agent. Because she’d been living a cover her whole life. Her life had been that of a spy. Never let the mask slip, always be ready for an attack, never make friends. Trust no one. Roll with the punches. If you only hid the true you, you’d be caught. What you had to do was forget your old self. Be the cover. Then nothing bad could touch you.

It was strange, thinking about it; for most of her life she hadn’t been Juliet Higgins. She’s been someone else. The perfect child, the perfect spy and even to an extent the perfect fiancé.

Hawaii was different though.

Here she had to be herself.

Except for those occasions when Magnum dragged her along for one of his missions. But even when she was playing a part or attempting to simply be the spy she’d been for so long, she couldn’t. It was jarring. But as long as Thomas Magnum was around she was unable to be anyone but herself.

Whoever that was.

So much of what she was, was because of her childhood, her life as a spy, the death of the man she’d thought she’d finally have a normal happy life with.

Who was she truly?

Who would she have been if things had been different?

Would she have been a computer scientist, working in a cubicle in a London office? Have a husband, two kids and a cocker spaniel? Been a hacker with a code name, eventually end up caught by the police, put on probation for her crimes? Something else entirely? A bank teller? Waitress? Yoga instructor? Golf pro?

Would she have come to Hawaii? Maybe on holiday.

As she watched the waves from the beach she imagined the story. The cover.

She was on holiday, with her husband, a short balding man. They’d been married for fifteen years. They had two dogs. Small ones, nothing like the fierce Apollo and Zeus. No children. She couldn’t have children in this cover fantasy. Because children would get in the way of what came next.

While in Hawaii Her husband would go missing. She would have no idea how to find him. She’d be a stranger in a strange land. She’d be as helpless as some of the girls Magnum liked to help, liked to sleep with. Made breakfast for. Gave the gate codes to.

But this time, it would be _her_ Magnum was helping.

She imagined it. Like she’d imagined a hundred, a thousand, other lives. If she had been better with words she could have rivaled Masters when it came to thinking up stories.

She imagined, just like she’d imagined and seen before her a life as a Russian girl in order to infiltrate the KGB. How she’d emergence herself in being a reporter on the hunt for the next big political story in Washington DC. An actress seducingana Italian mobster. A scientist wanting to change the world in order to stop a terrible bio weapon from being created.

Only she let this story have a happy ending - without living it even for a second.

Magnum found out her husband was running off with some girl he’d met online and Hawaii was their rendezvous point before heading to Asia. Juliet herself decided she’d move out to Hawaii after the divorce. She brought her dogs. And she became friends with Thomas Magnum.

Then more than friends.

It was like now, only better, because she was someone else. This someone else was kinder, sweeter and did not have her past. This other Juliet was not as competent as her either of course, but this was a cover so she didn’t need to be.

And in this story, there had been no Hannah. No girl to capture Thomas’ heart and then break it. So he was free and she was different. It wasn’t an exciting cover, no fancy James Bond stuff, but it was one cover she wouldn’t mind living.

“Watching the sunrise?” the real Thomas Magnum’s voice broke into the fantasy. No. Story. She was a thirty-three year old woman. She did not have fantasies. Only thought of covers. Covers were useful things to think about. You never knew when you might need one. “I didn’t take you for the type.”

“What type is that?” she asked sarcastically, back to herself. Because she just couldn’t be the cover girl she’d imagined herself as. Not with him. She wondered what it would be like if she could have. “One that enjoys beauty?”

He only laughed at that and headed past her, into the water with his surfboard.

She watched, maybe a little too long. But it was a beautiful sunrise, a beautiful body and there was no harm in looking. Absolutely none.

Because Thomas Magnum still loved someone else. The recently healed bullet wound in his shoulder was proof of that, for sure.

Besides, even if he wasn’t, the real Juliet Higgins wouldn’t be the choice he’d made. The man rescued kittens and helped the helpless. For little more than spare change.

She’d never done those things. Never been selfless.

Sure, she’d stopped chemical attacks and stolen documents potentially damaging to the government, even been part of stopping a high up double agent in Russia. That was the last time she’d been shot (well, before deciding to help Magnum).

But she never did it for the little guy. She’d done it because she was good at it and it was what needed to be done. She’d liked when the stories had happy ending, but that hadn’t been her goal, her purpose.

Magnum did everything to help people. A person like that, the true and selfless kind, wouldn’t love someone who might have done the wrong thing just as easily as the right if she’d been ordered too.

She remembered he’d said he knew her, that killing the man that had killed Richard, that killing Viper, killing Ian, wasn’t her.

She wondered afterwards if he thought she didn’t kill him out of mercy. The real reason was that she knew he’d suffer longer and harder at the hand’s of whatever agency’s property he ended up. She also wondered if Magnum thought she’d never killed someone in cold blood. Never pointed a gun at someone unarmed and pulled the trigger as they begged.

She had.

There had been orders though. An exfil plan. No messy emotions like that night. She’d done worse things than assassinations too; torture and blackmail and leaving assets she’d made promises too behind. All in the name of Her Majesty. She hadn’t thought much about it back then.

But she did now. It was strange.

She’d never been bothered by her let’s call them... grey actions. She’d dealt with them as best she could, because burying things didn’t work. But she wasn’t so sure the ways she’d found to deal had been right. Because in the end she’d gotten past all she’d done. Then.

Now they sometimes haunted her. Maybe she had just buried them? Never truly unpacked them, as the MI6 shrinks would have said. She occasionally wondered if it was Magnum’s so overly good-boy attitude that was causing it, her regret, her revaluation.

Whatever the reason, she was quite sure that Thomas Magnum would, should, could not love Juliet Higgins. Not if he ever knew all the questionable deeds she’d done before he met her. Even when he’d said he didn’t want her to be anything but who she was, that day after he’d been shot and nearly died in her arms. But he only wanted her to keep on being the Juliet he’d known. The real her, he could never love.

Not that she wanted him to love her. That was only a cover, a story she’d told herself. To keep her mind sharp. To never forget. Or possibly to keep from remembering. Sometime she wasn’t sure.

Of course she didn’t want him to love her.

That was preposterous. Nonsense. She trained her dogs to attack him. She made sure he always knew just what he’d done wrong. She never let him get away with anything. He was the most uncultured man she’d even met, well, almost. She was hard on him, saw all his flaws. That wasn’t how you acted when you wanted someone to love you.

So yeah

Just like she didn’t want him to love her and she certainly didn’t love him. Maybe she wasn’t even able to. Sometimes she feared, even though she’d said it somany times, she hadn’t even loved Richard.

That, in fact, she hadn’t ever loved anyone and never would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might end up being totally AU as we learn more about Higgins' past. But I think it was Michael Westen (Burn Notice) that pointed out an abusive home situation is great for becoming a spy. I feel it would also explain how detached Juliet is with her feelings a lot of the time. It also made for great angst, and you gotta love some angst. I got some ideas for continuing this with an actual case and more angst (but happy ending) so let me know if you think I should!


	2. I See You

* * *

*Rick*

* * *

 

“I’m not sure you’re ready for this,” Rick said, watching Magnum lace up his fancy shoes.

“It’s a dinner date, not a marriage proposal,” Magnum argued, sounding unbothered.

Rick wasn’t fooled.

“What’s her name again? Maria? I don’t like it,” he continued.

“Did you have Higgins run a background check on her?” TC asked, looking up from his phone.

“Course not,” Magnum said, grinning and shaking his head.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Rick slapped TC’s arm. “He wouldn’t do that to her.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Magnum asked. “I mean if I was going to ask anyone for help running a background check-”

“On your girlfriend?”

“Well I wouldn’t. But if I were to.” Magnum shrugged. “Sure, why wouldn't I ask Higgins?”

“This once and for all proves I’m the smart one,” Rick said, shaking his head and putting on a serious face. “That lady is crazy for you. I’m not sure how you did it because she used to hate you but...I guess that’s what it’s like to be Thomas Magnum.”

“Higgins?” Magnum sounded stunned, which Rick found baffling. The puppy dog eyes were as much on his friend’s side as the blonde Brit's.

“Did someone drop you on your head a lot as a baby?” TC chimed in. “She likes setting the dogs on him.” He laughed.

“Yeah, if Juliet had her way I’d move out tomorrow,” Magnum said, but they all knew that wasn’t true. “Fine. She tolerates me. Might even like me-”

“Ah ha,” Rick said, holding his finger up in triumph. “Told you-”

“As a friend.”

“Did you tell her about your date?” Rick asked, knowing the answer.

“No.”

“Why not. You told us.” He pointed to himself and TC. “And we’re your friends. Face it Magnum. There is something going on.”

“Our boys got a point,” TC agreed. “I figured you already slept with her way back and that was why she hated you.”

“You’re both crazy,” Magnum said, giving them his standard grin. “Now, I have a date.”

“I think we’re being thrown out,” Rick said with mock hurt as Magnum motioned them out of the guest house. “Just think about it.”

* * *

*Magnum*

* * *

 

Maria had been exhausting. And all through their dinner snippets of the conversation he’d had with TC and Rick had been fluttering in his mind.

Magnum liked Higgins. Had since day one. He’d liked that she was honest, straightforward. She didn’t try to charm or want anything from him. Except, maybe, at first, for him to leave.

He respected her too. Her skills, even though he’d never admit it to her, often were greater than his own. It was like that song, Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better. Pick a lock, shoot a gun, hand-to-hand combat. She could do it all and he respected the hell out of her for that. The fact that she could work magic on the computer was another thing he respected hugely, even if he sometimes used her a little because of it.

But just like TC and Rick, he thought she rather enjoyed being dragged into his cases. For all the grumbling and complaining they did, they always showed up. And at the end of the day the adrenalin and the feeling of having done something good and right, was as big of a motivator as their friendship.

Higgins was no different. She might not seem like it sometimes, but she liked to help. Hidden behind a lot of sarcasm and Britishness, he was actually quite sure Juliet was just a big marshmallow.

This belief was sometimes, often, dampened by actually being around her.

Sometimes he wondered what trying to bring that softer side of her might be like. He liked those parts of her, the few times she tried to show them. But he wasn’t sure if he could do that yet. Hannah still haunted him.

Just as he’d thought he might be able to move past her, she’d given him a bullet wound he was going to feel for months. In a way that was good though. The physical pain helping him deal with the emotional one.

One day though, he could see it. Him and Juliet. Maybe. It wouldn’t be conventional but he thought they had the potential to be great...or they’d end up killing each other. Best make sure it was the first one if he ever did end up pursuing her.

Until then, there were girls like Maria. Who insisted on fancy restaurants where the meals were so tiny he had to get take-out on the way home.

Take-out and Tequila in this case.

 

When he got back to his house, he found none other than the woman that had plagued his thoughts all night in his living room.

“Where were you?” she asked, that tart British tone making him feel like he’d been called into the principal's office. “I tried calling you.”

“Out,” he replied, nodding towards the large moving box behind her, on his kitchen table. It hadn’t been there when he left. “What’s that?”

“It was delivered while you were _out_.”

“Who's it from?” he asked, putting the take out and bottle on the counter.

“It doesn't say.” She looked at his bounty. “You got food from Shirik’s Place. I thought they stopped serving you because you could-”

“I paid them and now my credit is good,” Magnum said and found himself taking out two plates.

Because for some reason he’d bought enough food for two. And suprise-suprise, here was Higgins, ready to be invited to share it.

“Want some dinner?”

“Yes please,” she said, even though her eyes went back to the box.

That curiosity was another thing they shared. Another thing he admired about her.

He abandoned the plates to hunt for cutters and then went to get the box open.

Inside was packing peanuts.

“Did you order something fragile?” she asked and shifted some the filling material.

“No,” he said, frowning and pushing the box over so the content spilled out across the table.

“Was that really necessary?” she asked, watching the avalanche of packing peanuts with an annoyed expression.

He scanned through them, but there seemed to be nothing in the box but the white styrofoam.

“There is a letter,” Juliet said, grabbing it and holding it up. “Thomas,” she read on the card before moving it closer to her face. “It smells lovely. But who would send you a perfumed letter in an empty box?”

“I don’t know,” he said, a little concerned as he accepted the letter when she held it out for him.

“Hannah?” she asked, and he could hear the tension in her voice. Why hadn’t he ever noticed that before? Had it not been there before? Or had he been too busy thinking of other things?

“Not her style,” he said. “She wasn’t the flower and candles type of girl.”

She accepted this and watched with suspicious curiosity as he opened the envelope and tugged out the letter. It too smelled softly of flowers and something he couldn’t place. Clean clothes, maybe, if that was a scent.

The was a few sentences written on the card, which he read and frowned.

 

_My soul, my heart, my eyes._

_I see you._

_Do you see me?_

 

“You sure this was addressed to me?” he asked even though his name was plainly written on the envelope.

“What does it say?”

He handed it over. She read it too.

“Well that’s not the least bit disturbing is it? _I see you_.” Higgins glanced around. “We should scan the place for bugs.”

“I thought you did that every week already,” he said but didn’t mind. He liked watching Juliet bend and stretch as she did her weekly sweep for listening devices and other possible security threats. Technically his job, but her spy gadgets were leagues ahead what he could get his hands on. “Probably good ideas though. Probably it’s nothing, some creep trying to mess with my head.”

“We should still trace the package,” she said, turning to head towards the door. “I’ll go get the scanner.”

“I’ll get dinner fixed up.”

She nodded. “No tequila for me.”

“Sure,” he said but took down two glasses. Just in case she changed her mind.


	3. The Tequila Effect

When Juliet woke up naked with a pounding headache and in an unfamiliar bed, her first question to herself was, _Who am I?_

As a female spy, there were certain times, being the lover had big advantages. People, men, will tell you things after sex they never else would have. Juliet had used that to her advantage.

Only today she wasn’t waking up to a possible target, asset or anyone she needed to extract information from. She was waking up next to Thomas Magnum. Somehow that was more terrifying.

She also found, when she slid away from him - she wasn’t totally naked. She still had her blue shorts on, even if they were unbuttoned.

That made the panic in her chest lessen some. Panic she wasn’t sure was warranted. She’d slept with plenty of men she didn’t love, who didn’t love her.

_This was different._

No, it’s not, she told herself.

“Mmm,” Thomas said, reaching for her even as she moved off the bed and away.

Where was her top?

She couldn’t find it, and because she feared Magnum was waking up she grabbed the first piece of clothing she could. And ended up with the red hawaii shirt she’d bought as a joke for him. The shirt he wore even though he must have known that was what it was.

“Right,” she said, buttoning the thing on. Then she found one of Magnum’s shoes and threw it at his mostly asleep form. She aimed for his leg and not head, which she thought was impressive of her. Self control and all that. “Wake up.”

“Whut?” he said, as he sat up. “Juliet? What are you doing- is that my shirt.”

“I seem to have misplaced my top. I will have your shirt returned to you once it’s washed and pressed,” she said, not sure what she’d hoped waking him up would accomplish. She should just have left, only that would have felt dishonest somehow.

“Wait,” he said as she turned to march out of the bedroom, out of the guest house. “Higgins! What the-”

She heard him swear, presumably as he got tangled up in his bed sheets. She kept on walking.

Too her surprise, he caught up with her halfway to the main house, pants and shoes on. Impressive speed. Also, impressive chest. His working out for the Iron Man was paying off. She could still outrun him, she was sure. Especially with the little pink wound still visible on his shoulder. Where Hannah had shot him.

What kind of person would shoot Magnum? Who would want to kill something that good? Higgins couldn’t understand it. Because even now, mad (mostly with herself, because this was surly due to accepting a shot or two of tequila - she remembered there had been tequila - but also for Magnum for...for being too damned irrististible for her inebriated self to resists.) and with more right ever before to want to strangle him, she couldn’t ever imagine really wanting to hurt him. He was frustrating and stubborn and childish but he was Magnum.

As good as any person she’d ever met.

“Would you stop?” he said, putting himself in her path. “We just- last night. I think we need to talk.”

“No, we do not,” she said firmly. “And we did not.”

“Juliet,” he tried but she gave him a hard icy stare. It was one of her best defenses.

“Nothing happened. We needn’t to talk about anything.”

“I wouldn’t say nothing-” Magnum protested, a smile tugging at his lips.

He remembered, she realized. Maybe not everything but more than her. Did he remember who made the first move? How far they’d gone? She was desperate to ask, to know, but equally frighted. Better to just not know anything, to go back to normal.

“Nothing we need to talk about,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Now get out of my way.”

She could have just stepped around him but she needed control or power or _something_ , from him. Needed him to yield. She always wanted that. Show she was just as good. Better.

She’d always needed to be the best. She often thought, this, too was a product of her childhood. The best. Only the best would do.

“What about the box? The letter? Will you help me trace it?” he asked, his eyes never leaving hers. Those twin pools of kindness making her wish for silly things.

For a second she thought she could remember looking into them as they lay in bed, entwined. But that was probably just her mind playing tricks.

“Yes, of course,” she said. Because everything was normal. Nothing had changed.

“I have a client meeting so I’ll be gone-”

“Go,” she said as he finally stepped out of her way. “I’m not your keeper, you don’t have to report to me.”

“I know,” he said, as she walked away, then called after her, “But I am your friend. Try to remember that!”

Her friend.

Yes.

Friendship. That was nice and safe. Exactly what she wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I feel like they both need a kick in the butt to actually be willing to admit anything to each other when it comes to feelings (at least for each other) thankfully we have tequila to help with this problem...well at least kind of help. Or maybe just make everything more complicated!


	4. The Case

This is my son, Mario,” Mr. Lucio Dirento told Magnum, pushing a picture of a teenager across the picnic table. “He’s been missing for years. Back in italy, there was some trouble. But then I get sent this.”

Mr. Dirento took out his phone and held it out. On the screen was a photo of what could be the same boy as the one in the photo only a few years older. The picture was taken in front of semi-famous restaurant downtown.

“I tracked this place down and came out here to search for him. But I am just one person, I know no one here. I was told you were the person who would help me,” Mr. Dirento said.

The man’s accent was fairly heavy italian, he looked to be in his fifties but still in good shape and there was a deep sadness in the man’s eyes. Loss. Magnus had known a lot of loss, but he couldn’t imagine losing a child. 

“I’ll help you find your son,” he promised. “If you give me your phone I can try to trace that picture. Maybe find who sent it to you.” 

“Thank you,” he said, nodding. “You cannot imagine. For so long I’ve wanted nothing but to know what happened to my boy and I prayed he was alive. Perhaps my prayers have finally been answered.”

“I hope so Mr. Dirento,” Magnum said, shaking the man’s outstretched hand. “And I promise to do my very best to find him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short little chapter, been super busy! I'm so totally excited for next weeks episode (Blood in the Water), looks like Magnum and Higgins moments all episode!


	5. Ghosts

Magnum drove up to Robin’s nest, half fearing either that the gate code wouldn't work or that Apollo and Zeus would be waiting for him as soon as he exited the car.

Neither happened, he found Higgins doing yoga, her two ‘’lads’ resting nearby. They stood and growled as they saw him

“Easy,” Juliet told them and moved from the frog-like position she’d been into standing, her toned body making it impossible for him to not flashback to yesterday.

They’d eaten his take-out and had managed it without one or the other doing or saying something to upset the other. He’d teased her into the first tequila, then, like so often, she had to prove she could do it better, fast, than him.

He told himself, he’d kissed her to distract her from more tequila. Truth was, drunk Higgins was just too damned cute for her own good.

Then again, she was always cute. Until she opened her mouth. Or sent the dogs chasing after him.

“What can I do for you Magnum?” she asked. As if everything was normal and they hadn’t rolled around on his living room floor like horny teenagers the day before. Act like he hadn’t carried her to his bed and been seconds from making love to her. Close enough he might almost say he had even though half of her clothes had stayed on.

Then again, only one of them had been a super-secret spy, hidden her emotions and played a part for a living. And it wasn’t him.

“Any news about my mystery delivery?” he asked even though there were so many other things he wanted to know that only she could tell him. Trouble was, he doubted she’d talk to him. Knew it in fact.

But her eyes last night had told him part of what he wanted to know. That all the tequila had done for her, for them both really, was removed the restraint. Freed them, her, to accept a desire she wasn’t ready to accept sober.

Funny thing, he hadn’t been either, but today even with the tequila out of his system, he didn’t mind so much the revelations that he might want something more with Juliet Higgins. The most pain in the ass, smart, badass woman he’d ever met.

Trouble was, even with what he’d seen in her eyes between drunken kisses, he doubted she’d ever admit to anything but having mild concerns for his well-beeing. 

But he wasn’t in a hurry. He could wait, let her recover from the loss of Richard Dane. The man she’d planned to spend her life with. A ghost that always floated behind her. Magnum wondered if he’d ever measure up to Richard. If he could ever hope to impress Higgins in any way; they were so different. 

“No prints, the delivery boy claims the box was left at the normal service station but there is no record of anyone sending it in the system. No barcode to track,” she rattled off. “Dead end, other than the fact that whoever sent you that package must know how the service station’s system works. We could start with that. Also, I did a sweep of the big house for bugs too. Nothing just like your place.”

“The letter mystery will have to wait then, I have another case, a client whose son been missing for years and suddenly out of the blue he gets sent a picture,” Magnum said handing over Mr. Dirento’s phone. So even though the mystery of the box was personal, the possibility of reuniting a father and son took priority. “Of his son, here alive, in Hawaii. Anything you can do with that? Maybe track the IP address or something.”

“This is a text message, not an email,” she said, as if that should mean something. Then, when it clearly didn’t, she rolled her eyes. “Yes. I can track it.”

“Great,” he said, “Thanks.”

“Magnum,” she said, after studying the picture closer. “What’s the name of your client?”

He told her and she paled.

“What is it?”

She looked up with big confused eyes. “Lucio Dirento was one of my assets. In Italy, years ago. Last I heard both he and his son had been killed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Magnum is coming to his senses, while I'm slowly losing my mind! Next weeks episode look sooo amazing and shippy! I've watched the trailer like 10 times (yes I'm clearly a full-on dork with too much time on her hands) and can't wait for it.


	6. Dirento

“Okay, from the beginning,” Magnum said. They were back in the guest house.

Juliet still had a sort of unreal feeling crawling through her.

The very same day she almost sleeps with Magnum, one of her deep dark secrets came to Hawaii. If that wasn’t the universe slapping her in the face she wasn’t sure what it was.

“There was some talk of a branch of the Italian mob moving to make a deal with one of London's biggest dealers. They were going to flood the streets with drugs,” she said, calm collected. Like she was telling a story of someone else’s life. Not hers. “I was sent in to get close to the son of the head of the family. Possibly to find other assets I could turn while I was there.”

“Lucio was one of those I turned,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t ask but knowing he would.

“How?”

“It’s not important,” she said, not able to look at him. So instead she turned towards the ocean. Calm and beautiful. “In the end I got enough intel from my primary target. But Lucio got sloppy, got himself found out. So I was going to extract him and his son. They didn’t show up to the exfil point though. It was too dangerous for me to stay in Italy. So I left without them.”

“Why didn’t he show?” Magnum asked. Always asking the right questions.

“His son had already been captured. Or so I was told. The intel I got, from what I remember Dirento went after the boss and was killed.”

“Is this Dirento an impostor then?”

“Possibly,” she said turning back to him, searching his eyes for what he thought of what she’d just told him. How she’d left someone she’d made promises to behind. That, must be, to him, unthinkable.

But there was only sympathy in his eyes. Even when she told him ugly things, he wanted to see just the good. Typical Magnum.

“Or maybe they both survived,” he suggested, moving a little closer to her. “Maybe they ended up here so you could help them find each other again.”

“Really Magnum? You believe the world works like that?” she asked, harsher than she meant. “But maybe we should look up this Mr. Dirento. See if he’s the same one. His child sure looks the same.”

Magnum didn’t comment on the fact that she must have met Mario, more than once, since she knew him even after all these years, and yet she’d left him. A child, well, teen, to suffer at the hands of the mob.

She felt the need to explain. “My past is not as pretty as yours. I didn’t do it for the rainbows and puppies-”

“No, you gave up one boy, one family, to save many more with the information you were bringing back. Don’t think I don’t understand that,” he said. Always seeing the god, never the bad. “I was a soldier for a long time. Sometimes all you can do is complete the mission. Does this mean you speak Italian too?”

“Parlo un po' italiano,” she said as he grinned.

“How many languages are that now? Cantonese, Russian, Arabic, Spanish,” he grinned.

“And a few more,” she said, not wanting to give away all her secrets. Also, Magnum’s smile was impossible not to return.   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a long time and is so short. Have a lot of deadlines for school but with season 1 over and done with I'm going to have to get my Magnum fix by writing fanfics so I'll try to update this fairly regularly until done! I'm also working on a one-shot /post-finale story as well as a fun one which is from the POV from Zeus. Anyone want to see those?


	7. What Are The Right Words?

“He looks the same,” Juliet declared as she looked at the pictures of Lucio Dirento online. “You sure this is the man you met with?”

“Pretty sure,” Magnum said, taking a third look. “Yup. That’s him.”

“He’s staying at the Pomaikai hotel, arrived on Friday,” she rattled off as she scanned through information. “Nothing to contradict his story.”

“So he is the real Dirento?”

“Seems so,” Juliet said, face pinched. “I suppose I will get to work trying to find the source of this picture. If I may suggest, let’s invite Mr. Dirento here. I imagine that will be the best way to make sure he truly is who he says.”

“Yeah? You think he’d recognize you?”

She made a little sound in the back of her throat. It reminded him vaguely of one she’d made when he kissed her neck last night. Only he’d been sure that was one of pleasure while this one was clearly not.

“Since I ruined his life,” she said. It was a fact she was stating, not a possibility. Or so she made it sound even if he was sure it wasn’t all her fault. “I imagine so.”

“I’m not certain that’s such a good idea,” he protested. He didn’t want to invite some guy who might hold a grudge against her into the property. Then again, Mr. Dirento might be glad to know Juliet Higgins was in his corner. If she knew her at all he would. Anyone would.

Then again, Mangum wasn’t sure he was entirely objective about that this point. He had almost-sort-of slept with her. Did that mean his judgment was compromised? He didn’t think so since he’d been willing to trust her with his life for a long time.

“Perhaps not,” she agreed, then her fingers which had been flying over the keyboard stopped. “I have the address where the picture of Dirento's son was sent from.”

“Let’s go,” he said.

 

He kept trying to start the conversation on the drive down. About last night. About what maybe it could mean. He went over a whole bunch of ways to start. How he might sneak the topic into a conversation.

She had hang-ups, but he knew she liked him too. He’d seen it in her eyes last night, felt it in the way she’d clung to him. Even if the details were fuzzy those parts were very clear to him. Besides, even beyond last night, the last year of her helping him was proof she didn’t dislike him nearly as much as she pretended to. Wasn’t it?

Maybe he just came right out and told her. He’d done that a few times in the past. And she’d responded pretty well to it. Besides most people liked to hear that you liked them.

It wasn’t like he was about to tell her he loved her and wanted to marry her. It was just a ‘what if we gave this a try’ sort of thing at this point. Or maybe a bit more. He did care about her a lot. Being perfectly honest he actually did love her.

Like he loved TC and Rick. Like friend-loved her. And he found her really hot. And kissing her had set his blood on fire.

But that was all. That wasn’t the same as being in love and ‘I love you’-ing her. Was it? Besides, even if it was, it wasn’t like he’d start with that. Or maybe he should?

No. But then what? Telling her he always figured they’d be great together but had just been waiting for the right time? No, that sounded creepy. Perhaps all he had to do was talk to her about something not to do with the case. Something fun. Light. Seemed like a good plan.

Only Higgins kept staring out the car, such a focused and distant look on her face he instead found himself asking questions, trying to gather some information about Italy about his newest client and Juliet’s past with him. It just seemed easier.

“He had a mistress. Dirento,” she admitted after some questions and well-placed silence. Being a PI had thought Magnum silence was a powerful tool. Not that he really thought he’d tricked or truly manipulated mast spy Higgins. She knew all these tricks. She’d just decided to tell him. “I got pictures of him at her house… with her.”

“So you blackmailed him in return for information?” Magnum asked, not liking it but needing the truth. Not to solve the case, but to protect her, he realized. To know if Dirento would be a problem, a threat to her.

“Yes,” she agreed.

“He was a mobster,” he defending her, when she couldn't, wouldn't, defend herself. Her actions.

She looked out of the car at the houses they were passing. “Would you have done it?”

“I was a soldier,” he told her. “Not a saint.”

She nodded and almost smiled at that. Then she was quiet for a long moment.

“Mangum. Last night...”

 _Yes_ , he wanted to shout. _Yes! Talk to me about last night_.

“Nothing.” She checked her phone. “We’re here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. I got drawn into the Game of Thrones madness and spring sort of just happened so been spending a lot of time outdoors! Also sorry Magnum and Juliet can't quite get around to actually talking about what happened between them, but I'm trying to stay semi in character and I think at least Higgins would be totally in 'not talking about it' mode!


	8. War Zones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back in Magnum mode - I mean come on, after 2x03 I think we all are feeling very shippy! It's been a while but I got a few chapters almost done and since I just quit my creative writing class I'm feeling so much more motivated to write (why is writing so much easier and more fun when you don't HAVE to write? Urg. At least I'm writing something!)

“Looks normal,” Magnum said, scanning the small sad looking bungalow Higgin’s coordinates had led them to. “This is where the phone that took the photo of Dirento’s son?”

“Yes,” she said, frowning. “Not exactly where one would imagine the son of a mobster setting up residence.”

“Not quite,” Magnum said and reached over for his gun. He tried not to brush against her as he did, but it was impossible not to really. And he felt a little rush of pleasure at the fact that she drew in a quick breath.

She might be denying everything but clearly things had changed. Clearly him being close to her affected her more today than it had yesterday. 

 

They knocked but there was no answer. After some quick checks in the window, it was clear no one was home.

“Why don’t you do it?” he said, handing over his lock picks. “You're quicker than me.“

“Flattery? Really Magnum?” she said, eyebrow raised. 

“Fact,” he said but wondered if he’d have done the same thing last week. He decided he would have. She was better at picking locks than him.

In record time she had the door open and they stepped into the dreary hallway. There was no noise. But somehow the house felt occupied to Magnum.

He’d always had a bit of a seventh sense about things like that. It had saved him from getting killed several times when his unit had been about to be ambushed. 

But this wasn’t a war zone.

Probably it was just whoever owned the phone who had sent the photo. They were in the house sleeping. Too hungover to wake up from their knockings.

“Hello?” she called out as she walked ahead. He resisted the urge to hush her. Or pull her back. Tell her to get behind him. Because this was not a war zone. Sometimes he had to remind himself. Especially when he got this feeling. “Anyone home?”

“Maybe-” he was about to suggest they get out of there. But before he could multiple things happening at once.

The closet next to Magnum was thrown open and a tanned dark-haired man came out swinging. 

As Magnum threw his hand up to block he saw Juliet go down. Just fall to the floor. No shot had gone off though.

“Higgy!” he called, as two men stepped over towards her body.

He ducked a blow from the guy who was coming at him as he registered a faint buzzing/ hissing noise.

Taser.

Magnum swung, using his elbow to break the guy’s nose. It crunched satisfyingly. 

He thought the guys by Juilet said something to one another but the guy with the broken nose was pissed rather than out, coming at him again. He should have jammed harder. But he’d become used to pulling punches. Not fighting to kill but to simply subdue most days.

But this was an ambush.

A war zone.

It was a kill or be killed situation.

There was going to be no mercy for these men. 

Only before he could drive his knee into the man with the bloody nose who was grabbing for his throat, something connected with his head.

Even as he fell, he could still see. _See one of the men pick her up. Pick up Juliet, her body limp from the taser. They were taking her. Because this had been about her, not finding a lost son._

_Lucio Dirento. For sure. He was behind this. Had to be._

Before he could form any more thoughts he hit the concrete floor of the hall and in combination with the blow from the fourth guy, the guy Magnum hadn’t accounted for, hadn’t realized was there, his head couldn’t handle the impact.

Everything went black.


	9. Lucky Breaks?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had some of this already written out when 2x03 aired and it's weirdly similar to parts of that episode reversed, with Magnum on a hunt for a missing Higgins.

Magnum woke up with a pounding headache and the certain knowledge he would not find Juliet Higgins in the rundown bungalow with him.

But he was still alive at least. That meant he could find her. He just had to move his head, which was still on the floor. Just had to get his gun, which was mere feet away from him where it must have landed as he fell. He tried for it. The world faded to black but the musty smell of the place filled him instead. The silence too.

Alone. No people around.

No Higgy.

He wanted to swear and curse but didn’t. It wouldn’t help any. 

It never did. 

His fault. His case.

But it was connected to her. Her past.

Lucio Dirento.

He was Magnum’s link to Juliet. How he would find her.

Opening his eyes, not remembering closing them, he made himself get up. Even though the world wobbled and he worried he might throw up. He had to get moving. He had to find her. Quickly. 

 

He went back to Robin’s Nest first. Juliet had all the research she’d done on Dirento there. On her computer. He’d use that to track Dirento down. And once he did, Dirento would take him to Juliet. One way or another.

“Rick,” he said as he got his friend’s voicemail. “Get T.C. Meet me back at Robin’s Nest. Someone took Juliet.”

The login screen. It seemed to mock him. Juliet’s password. He wanted to imagine he could guess it. Or that she wouldn’t have changed it since the last time he figured it out by sneakily watching her months ago.

She had, of course, changed it.

He wanted to make a few guesses. Want to think he knew her well enough he could figure it out.

But he doubted he could. Because he did know her. Her password would be a row of random letters and numbers. Safety first.

"Damn it!" he slammed the lid of the offending tech down. Kumu came in just then, as he was swearing at the computer. He hadn't told her yet. He felt like maybe, maybe, she'd blame him.

“Magnum,” Kumu said. “Are you okay?"

He said nothing. He'd wiped the blood from the back of his head off and the wound from whatever they'd hit him with - butt of a gun seemed most likely - wasn't bleeding any more. But he was far from okay. Juliet was gone.

"You have a visitor, I sent him down to the guest house,” she continued when he said nothing, a concerned look on her face. "Thomas, are you-"

“Visitor?” Magnum questioned. 

“Said he was a client,” she said as she moved around him to check on of the artifact behind Juliet’s desk. “A Mr. Delento something. Italian I believe.”

“Dirento?” Could he be so lucky?

“Yes, that’s it.”

“He’s here?” Magnum asked, his hope renewed even with no way to access Juliet’s computer.  But why would Dirento be here? Another ambush? Whatever the plan Dirento had, Magnum didn’t care. He was going to use this lucky break to find Higgins. 

“Yes,” Kumu said, of course not understanding the significance. “Where is Juliet?”

“I’m about to find out,” Magnum said as he checked his gun quickly, before heading for the guest house.

 

“Where is she?” he asked, slamming Dirento up against a wall, gun in hand.

“I don’t, I don’t understand,” the man stammered. Magnum tried to read his expression but all he could see was indignation. No fear. No guilt.

“Juliet! Where is she!?!” Magnum clarified because for a moment his conviction that Dirento was involved in this was wavering. “You knew her years ago in Italy. She blackmailed you.”

“I don’t-” Dirento frowned. He seemed genuinely confused. But how could it all be a coincidence? “Wendy? You speak of Wendy?”

Backing off Dirento Magnum got his phone out, quickly finding a photo of him and Juliet, taken at a BBQ by Rick. He held the picture up to the other man’s face. 

Magnum knew then he hadn’t been mistaken. Dirento hated Juliet Higgins.

“Her name was Wendy when I knew her,” Direnot said, looking at the photo of Juliet on Magnum’s phone screen with a fierce scowl. “I trusted her and she, what you say, screw me over,” he spit. “She break my family apart. My son gone, my wife left.”

“So you kidnap her now? Years later?” Magnum said, grabbing holding onto the man’s collar once more. “Where she is?”

“I said I knew her then, not that I knew where she is now.” Dirento’s forehead beaded with sweat. Magnum couldn’t tell if it was from lying or from fear. “Please, I came to you to so you’d help me find my boy. Maybe whoever has him have Wendy. You see, why would I come here if I had done something like this?”

“Juliet,“ he corrected, but reluctantly let go of Dirento. He did have a point. Why would he come here if he’d kidnapped Higgins? But there had to be some connection. “You have a theory on who took Mario? Who sent you the photo? You should have told me yesterday.”

Dirento hesitated.

"Tell me!"

“My brother,” he said reluctantly and now there was fear in his eyes. “Stefan Dirento. The head of the _Family_.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I didn't write much of Magnum angsting over Higgins because at this point he's just in action mode. But because he's Magnum, as soon as he has nothing to do, no leads to follow, he'll move onto feeling really terrible and blaming himself :)


	10. - Only One Way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With all the in-show Miggy fluff and (reading) whumptober fics+ life, I haven't had time or motivation to really work on this, so sorry it's short. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this month so updates will probably be slow, sorry.

“The only option that makes sense is my brother. He would have wanted to hurt me but Mario was one of his favorites. He maybe not could make himself kill Mario and sent him away instead. That is the only thing I could think of,” Dirento said, straightening his collar as he stepped away from magnum.

Magnum thought about that. “Juliet helped bring down a chunk of your organization. Stopped some big deal from going down. Maybe he found out about her life here and decided to draw both of you out at the same time. Or maybe it was all about you at first and Juliet was just a lucky coincidence.”

Even as he said it, he wasn’t sure if he believed it. But if Dirento was the type to play games... if he was clever enough to come here and pretend not to know where Juliet was, good enough of an actor to fool him, Mangum figured having the man followed would give him better results than attempting to extract Juliet’s location from him right then and there.

“I gotta make a call,” he said, moving away but keeping a careful eye on his “guest”.

Once out of earshot he called Rick, who was on his way. Sometimes Magnum sometimes wondered if Rick really did set his own hours or if he just didn’t care if he got fired from the club. Today he was just glad he got his friend on the second ring.

“I’m almost at the gate,” Rick said as he picked up, no hi how are yous today. “You said someone took Juliet? How does that even happen?”

“Someone was prepared,” he replied once he was fully out of earshot. “For both of us.” He took a steadying breath. “There is a man here. He might be involved. Or not. I need you to follow him when he leaves.”

“Anything you need my man,“ Rick assured him.

After getting some details from Dirento, he let the man leave. He still wasn’t 100% sure he wasn’t somehow involved but for now, he was going to give him the benefit of the doubt. And with Rick tailing him the risk of losing him, if he was involved, was small.

He might lead them to Higgins.

But Magnum’s gut said no. If she'd been there, she probably would have told him his stomach couldn't tell him anything.

Unfortunately, the new lead, this mob boss, wasn’t an easy one to follow. Especially not without Higgins herself. Not even her computer.

He almost smiled at the irony. He needed Higgins to find Higgins.

Then he called Katsumoto. Got voice mail. Called an old army buddy, one who was still in the service. Asked him to look into the movements of the Italian mob. 

“Fuck,” he swore after the call ended, because what now?

He imagined Juliet in the hands of a mob boss. He’d seen the sopranos, seen enough terrible things in his own military career and even as a PI to feel his gut twist.

Only Higgins wasn’t some helpless damsel in distress. She’d give them hell...and they’d give her even more hell for that.

He checked the ‘find my friends’ app, hoping against the odds that whoever had taken would have turned her phone back around. They hadn’t. The last location it showed was the house they’d been attacked at.

Maybe he should go back. He’d checked it out quickly, and the surrounding area. But maybe there was a surveillance camera.

It would be something to do. Something other than thinking about how they should have prepared better - he should have- and how easily he’d been taking down. Something other than thinking of what might be happening to Juliet.

He cleaned the wound on his head up a little better and took a pain killer for the low throbbing pain that had set in. Part of him didn’t want to do that, felt that, maybe a little pain was what he deserved. But he needed to be 100% to find her.

As he got in the Ferrari he sat for a few minutes, feeling like there were a hundred things he should be able to think of, do, to find her yet none came to mind. That wasn’t how it normally was. He always had some idea, some plan.He wondered just why this was paralyzing him so much. Why he couldn't think clearly. Had to be his head injury. Had to be.

Her smile as he brushed his finger across her cheek, a memory from last night, flashed in his mind. Then one that wasn’t real, of someone running a knife down that very same spot, drawing blood. The setting was eerily like one of the torture rooms at the POV camp. He knew he was projecting. That didn’t make him feel any less sick at the thought.

His phone vibrated. Hopeful it was Katsumoto calling him back - or his military contact - he grabbed it quickly. Only to realize it was just a text.

 _'142 Willow Road',_ it read. Then three dots popped up and the words ' _I trust you'_ were added.

Magnum stared at the screen, not quite daring to believe. _142 Willow Road._ Could this be where Higgins was? Had she escaped? Only what was the ' _I trust you'_ about? A code? Or was it another ambush? For him this time?

Only one way to find out...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to like :)


End file.
